Rossi hopes his American Dream takes him further

But Republican may be too far right to win governor's race

Published 10:00 pm, Wednesday, October 27, 2004

It's a story of cows and kimchi, and the point is supposed to be that Republican Dino Rossi is moderate enough to be governor.

Well-worn on the campaign stump, Rossi's story begins at his appearance at a Mabton rally for cattlemen struggling to recover from the mad cow scare. The former state senator notes the conservative-leaning Washington Farm Bureau scored his voting record as 100 percent in step with its agenda.

Then the story takes a sharp turn left: By sunset, Rossi was on the Western side of the Cascades, having dinner in Seattle's International District. "I was eating kimchi with the Korean community later that night," he said.

A grandson of immigrants and a self-made millionaire, Rossi is considered by many the GOP's first viable gubernatorial candidate in two decades. He knows centrists usually decide statewide races. The commercial real estate executive's challenge is to convince those voters that he's not too conservative for a state many see as left-leaning.

His opponent, Democratic Attorney General Christine Gregoire, routinely tries to corner Rossi on the right. Rossi, in turn, avoids some wedge-issue topics such as embryonic stem cell research, abortion and gay marriage.

Instead, Rossi tries to maintain a tight focus on his promises for job and business growth. Nearly every campaign speech follows one theme: Rossi is a fiscal conservative with a social conscience -- and an agent of change for Olympia.

Rossi's is a common pitch for GOP candidates nationwide.

The question is, can the former senator from Sammamish -- with a reputation for charm, but a record far enough to the right to win him a 100 percent approval rating from the Washington Conservative Union -- sell it to enough Washingtonians?

Humble roots

Before Rossi could even try to win over moderates, he faced a more fundamental problem -- most voters didn't know who he was.

Rossi, his wife, Terry, 42, and their four children, ages 4 to 14, live on the Sammamish Plateau near Issaquah.

Rossi, 45, is an officer with a downtown Seattle commercial real estate company, but he acknowledges he rarely goes into the office. He helped found a commercial bank on the Eastside, but he doesn't sit on the board. He owns rental properties, but he pays others to manage them.

Instead, he's spent most of his time since resigning his Senate seat in December traveling the state, rarely turning down an invitation to meet, speak or raise money. Chicken dinners with more than a dozen local GOP groups, pasta lunches with developers, restaurateurs and other businesspeople, small gatherings with community groups.

Earlier this month, at a Shelton lasagna luncheon that drew about 100, special guests included conservative Democratic state Sen. Tim Sheldon and former Republican U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton. Gorton signed copies of the 9/11 Commission Report.

The line was usually longer to shake hands with Rossi.

Lawyer Ben Settle hosted the $40-per-seat fund-raiser because he thinks Rossi holds more promise than any GOP candidate since Gorton.

"Rossi (is) the kind of guy Republicans could get elected," Settle said. "He connects with people.

"Part of it is because we've had 20 years of having Democratic governors. Some of them have done a credible job. But I think that the business community has suffered as a result," he said. "It's an uphill battle, but I do expect him to take (Mason) County. I think he needs to take the county to take the state."

Not because Mason County's electorate pulls much swing. Fewer than 13,000 residents of that county voted in 2000. It's the fact they swing. That year, Mason County chose Al Gore for president, Gorton for Senate and Democrat incumbent Gov. Gary Locke.

Often, Rossi's crowds are dominated by businesspeople who back his promise to repeal state regulations that many industries see as overly burdensome.

But in Shelton, Bill Fox had a pair of hot-button issues in mind. He attended the luncheon to ask Rossi where he stands on gun rights and freedom of speech. As Rossi made his rounds to the back of the room, Shelton got his chance.

"He said he stands for the constitutional right to bear arms," Fox said. "But he sure got out of here quick when I said I was (with) the NRA (National Rifle Association).

"I guess he didn't want to get into it -- which is OK."

Fox didn't think Rossi was giving the conversation short shrift because a reporter was at the table. "I've always had a feel for people and I think he's on the level -- as much as any politician can be," he said.

But Rossi has avoided publicly discussing social issues while campaigning. Instead, he seeks to convince voters that he's lived the American Dream and knows how to run the state so others can as well.

As he would repeatedly this October day, Rossi shared his life story with the crowd. He's the grandson of Italian immigrants who settled in Black Diamond, where his grandfather was a miner. The youngest of seven, Rossi tells of growing up in a modest Mountlake Terrace home, his father a grade-school teacher.

"I thought everybody drank powdered milk," his man-of-the people pitch includes. On his commitment to state parks, Rossi recalls long family camping trips at Copalis Beach. "My parents couldn't afford to take us to the Hilton."

He didn't share darker memories with the crowd, but he will later discuss them in interviews. Rossi's mother, whose parents were a Tlingit Indian and an Irish immigrant, fled Alaska with five children to escape an abusive husband. After a second ill-fated marriage, she met and married John Rossi, who had one son of his own from an unhappy marriage. Dino was their only child together.

Rossi's mother had a drinking problem until he was 7. His father suffered a serious heart attack when he was 11, and died a decade later.

With the group in Shelton, Rossi stuck with the American Dream story. And to the business people, he recalled how his life story helped him connect with a Democratic-leaning groups of Asian Americans.

Rossi worked his way through Seattle University as a janitor. He started a real estate career with $200 in the bank and a $200 car. At 25 years old, he bought his first apartment building.

And he shared with the Mason County folks the kicker of the story, the one he says connected him to the group of Asians immigrants: "Only in America."

"You should have seen the eyes in that crowd light up," Rossi told the mostly white business crowd, throwing in for laughs: "after the translation."

"By the time I was done I don't think that Democratic leaning crowd was still leaning Democrat."

His record

Raised by Democrats, Rossi decided in 1980 that he liked the free-market conservatism of Ronald Reagan. He became increasingly active in politics that decade, and in 1990 was named president of Seattle's Downtown Republican Club and King County's Republican of the Year.

In 1991 Rossi campaigned against a statewide initiative to legalize abortion. A Catholic, Rossi has said he opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother's life. He supports requirements that parents consent before minors are given abortions and also supports bans on third-trimester abortions.

When Gregoire tries to corner him on the issue of embryonic stem cell research, Rossi won't say where he stands ideologically. He opposes gay marriage but would rather discuss his regulatory reform plans.

Rossi argues that those issues are irrelevant to his gubernatorial campaign. "I've never sponsored any bills on" abortion, he recently told a newspaper editorial board.

"Dino and I don't always agree on all social issues -- I don't even agree with my wife on all issues," Evans said. "On balance, I am convinced he will be a good responsible governor ... and be a fresh, new leader."

Rossi's not running on such issues, and he won't likely be dealing with them, Evans said.

"It's so bogus that it verges on silly," Cooper said. "Practically all of the anti-choice legislation that's been coming down all over the country is at the state level. All of the barriers to abortion -- waiting periods, parental notification, informed consent -- all of those are state issues.

"And one or more of them is introduced to our state Legislature every single year since I've been in NARAL," said Cooper, who's been with the group 10 years.

Rossi faced accusations of extreme conservatism similar to today's criticisms in 1992, when he unsuccessfully ran for state Senate against a Democrat who supported abortion rights.

As he does now, back then he sought to position himself as a centrist and focus on his support for small government and privatizing state services, such as prisons and liquor sales.

Four years later, he beat that opponent.

Soon, then-GOP Majority Leader Dan McDonald spotted Rossi as a rising star and gave him a plum assignment on the budget committee. Rossi quickly, but quietly, made his mark, first with the construction budget.

Rossi's biggest year was 2003.

Rossi drew notice that year in his role as lead budget negotiator for the majority Senate Republicans. With help from Democrat Locke, Rossi managed to win over enough conservative Democratic legislators to easily pass a budget that filled a $2.7 billion shortfall without general tax increases.

Rossi's original budget proposal would have cut thousands from health care and illegal immigrants from prenatal care, but those ideas were rejected in negotiations. He successfully lobbied lawmakers to protect services for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled that Locke proposed cutting.

Rossi and his backers cite it as their best evidence that he can bring both political parties together. "Everybody, no matter how liberal or conservative, had a value," he told the Aberdeen newspaper board.

The Washington Conservative Union gave Rossi a 2003 score of 100 percent for his supporting their agenda, including his opposition to a measure to bolster gay rights and his support for restricting growth in the minimum wage and make it a crime for political demonstrators to disrupt traffic.

For his seven-year tenure, the Washington Conservation Voters gave him a score of 36 percent. The Washington State Labor Council gave him a 6 percent score.

"His efforts to portray himself as a moderate certainly don't apply to his voting record on our issues," said David Groves, a spokesman for the Council.

Still, high-profile moderate Republicans have used Rossi's role in the 2003 budget to bolster their defense of him. Both Evans and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have recorded radio testimonials for the candidate -- dismissing allegations he's too far right.

"There are some people who don't think a Republican can have a heart," McCain says in his. "Well, they haven't met Dino Rossi."